The first three pages of the letter are missing. Voltaire begins by saying that he intends to send Thieriot two or three poems by Mr Pope, whom he describes as ‘the best poet of England and, at present, of all the world’, in the hopes that Thieriot’s English is good enough to enable him to appreciate the charms of the works. He adds that he views Pope’s ‘the essay upon criticism’ as superior to the poetry of Horace and his Rape of the Lock as above Despreaux Le Lutrin. Voltaire then turns to his own ‘ever cursed fortune’, writing that he came into England at the end of July greatly dissatisfied with his secret voyage into France which proved both unsuccessful and expensive. He returned to England with only some bills of exchange upon a Jew called Medina for the sum of eight or nine thousand French livres but discovered uppon his arrival that Medina was broke. This left Voltaire alone and penniless in London, in the grips of a violent ague that left him too weak to visit the ambassador. He writes that he was helped by a gentleman who gave him accommodation at his country house, adding that the friendship of this man ‘sooths the bitterness’ of his life and makes him love Thieriot more and more. Voltaire claims to have seem Lord and Lady Bolingbroke numerous times and that they offered him money and their house, but that he refused their offers due to their status, instead accepting help from Mr Faulknear.
Voltaire then turns to matters of publishing, stating that he had thought to publish ‘Poor Henry’ at his own expense in London but the loss of his money had prevented him from doing so. He questions if he should attempt to publish via subscriptions by the favour of the court, but notes that he is weary of courts because ‘All that is King, or belongs to a King, frights my republican philosophy, j won’t drink the least draught of slavery in the land of liberty.’
The letter then addresses Voltaire’s correspondence with Desfontaines and his desire to see Thieriot in London, where he hopes to remain. He speaks of the benefits of remaining in England, writing that it is ‘a nation fond of their liberty, learned, witty, despising life and death, a nation of philosophers, not but that there are some fools in England, every country has its madmen. It may be, French folly is pleasanter, than English madness, but by god English wisdom and English Honesty is above yours.’ After discussing England at length, Voltaire writes that he fears Thieriot will take his letter for one of the ‘tedious English books’ Voltaire had advised him not to translate and so instead turns to the lateness of his reply. He blames his correspondent in Calais and asks Thieriot to send all letters henceforth to Bolingbroke’s house in London, asking him also to advise others who would correspond with him to do the same.
Voltaire then discusses his sister. He informs Thieriot that he has written so much about her to correspondents following her death that he had almost forgotten to write of her to Thieriot. He says that he has nothing to tell him about the accident, because Thieriot knows his heart and way of thinking already, but notes that he has wept for her death and wishes to be with her. He muses on her passing philosophically, writing: ‘Life is but a dream full of starts of folly, and of fancied, and true miseries. Death awakens us from this painful dream, and gives us, either a better existence or no existence at all.’